Heirloom
by JackieStarSister
Summary: Between "The Boiling Rock" and "The Southern Raiders," Katara entertains everyone with the story of her necklace. Oneshot, mentions of KannaXPakku and KyaXHakoda, vague Zutara. Please review! *Cover art courtesy of AvatarSpirit website.*


Katara was worried when she counted ten people, a sky bison, and a flying lemur who all needed a meal. But she was relieved when Suki showed her the store of food on the airship they had hijacked from the Boiling Rock prison.

"We've hit the jackpot," Katara said in awe. There were rations of rice, dried meat, vegetables, and jars of freshwater. For a group of teenagers who had been living on whatever nuts or roots they could find, the army rations were a feast.

Everyone gathered in the area near the fountain, sitting in a circle while Katara passed out food. The arrival of Hakoda, Suki, and Chit Sang had brought an air of festivity, and the successful breakout gave everyone a renewed sense of hope. Haru and Teo started talking about whether they could break the rest of the invasion force out of prison – it should be easy compared to the "inescapable" Boiling Rock.

"Tell us a story," The Duke begged Katara. While Sokka and Zuko were away, she had resorted to telling him stories to entertain him. It reminded her of how she used to baby-sit the younger children in the South Pole.

Katara pretended consider. "What kind of story?" she said playfully.

"A spirit tale?" Aang suggested.

"An adventure," Teo stated.

"A romance," Suki interjected.

"Something suspenseful," Sokka said.

"How about something that actually happened?" Chit Sang asked.

"Yeah," Haru spoke up. "You guys have been all around the world; you've had a hundred adventures."

"Hmm." That was a lot of requests. What kind of story would satisfy everyone? Katara absentmindedly fiddled with her mother's necklace; it was a nervous habit that she generally tried to fight, since it was so old and she didn't want to efface it more …

A smile spread across her face. There was the answer. A twofold story, with romance, courage, adventure, and family – and it was interesting because it involved people in her audience.

"Okay, I have a story I think you'll all enjoy," she said. "It's something that actually happened. Some of you already know bits of it, but not all."

"This sounds good," Toph said, lying down with her hands behind her head and one leg crossed over the other.

"'Once upon a time,'" The Duke started.

"No, not once 'upon a time,'" Katara said. "It was sixty years ago, in the Northern Water Tribe. My grandmother, Kanna, was a teenager. She became engaged to a waterbender named Pakku. He loved her, and he carved her a betrothal necklace, as is the Northern Tribe's custom. And this is the necklace he made."

Katara took off her necklace and held it up for everyone to see. Then she passed it around the group. Toph ran her fingers over the carving, feeling the smooth worn stone and the silk ribbon. Zuko held it in his hand and remembered the first time he had held it. Hakoda looked sadly at the necklace; Katara knew he was thinking of his wife, her mother, Kya. For a moment she felt a bit guilty for bringing up something so painful for him; but hopefully the rest of the story would cheer him up.

Finally the necklace came back to Katara, who put it back on and continued the story. "It was an arranged marriage. Kanna didn't love Pakku in return – at least, not enough to marry him in those circumstances. So she made a decision. She wouldn't let her tribe's traditions run her life. So she left the North Pole, and traveled to her sister Tribe in the South Pole. She never talked about her old life, or Pakku. But she kept the necklace he had made for her.

"Kanna – Sokka and I know her as Gran-Gran – gave the necklace to her daughter, Kya. When she died, it was passed on to me. I didn't know it was a betrothal necklace; I just knew it was an heirloom."

"That's why it's so special to you," Zuko said understandingly.

Katara nodded.

"Is that the end?" The Duke sounded disappointed.

"No, I'm not done yet," Katara said with a smile. "That was kind of the prologue. The story is still about my necklace. See, about seven or eight months ago, Sokka and I had just started traveling with Aang, and Zuko here was hunting Aang to regain his honor. We met Haru in an Earth Kingdom town that was under the control of firebenders. We helped Haru and the other earthbenders break out of prison –"

"Is that a hobby of yours?" Suki asked Sokka teasingly.

"That was the day I lost my mother's necklace."

Zuko had a bad sensation in his stomach. "Uh, Katara –"

"You wanted an interesting story, and I'm giving you one." Katara folded her arms and smiled smugly.

"How did you get it back?" Teo asked curiously.

"Well, a few weeks went by. Sokka and Aang and I had an adventure encountering pirates … see, I hadn't mastered waterbending, we were still looking for a master, and these pirates had a waterbending scroll that they had stolen from someone in the Northern Water Tribe. So …" Katara looked rather uncomfortable. "I stole the scroll from them."

Toph's eyes widened. "No way. _You_ stole something? And then you got all mad at me for scamming people?"

"Well, they had stolen it themselves –"

"And I cheated a cheater. But you didn't think that was justified."

Katara pursed her lips. "Well, that episode had taught me a lesson – be honest, and stay out of trouble. Anyway, that night I tried practicing waterbending on a river while Aang and Sokka were asleep. Then I heard something upriver. I looked through the bushes and saw the pirate's boat docked on the shore. When I turned around, I saw a pirate. He tried to grab me, but I started to run away – and I ran right into Zuko."

Everyone looked at Katara with wide eyes. Only Zuko looked wary and uncomfortable. Katara grinned wickedly. "Then – you'll love this – he grabbed my wrists and said, '_I'll save you from the pirates_.'" Katara spoke in a deep voice with an dark, intense expression.

Sokka choked on his biscuit; Aang and Toph burst out laughing; Hakoda raised his eyebrows; Suki started giggling uncontrollably; Chit Sang bellowed and slapped his knee.

Zuko wanted to die.

"What was your reaction?" Suki asked Katara.

"I was … bewildered. Scared of the pirates. Annoyed that Zuko was trying to play the hero."

Zuko broke in angrily. "Hey, I could have just stood back and let the pirates capture you. What then?"

There was an awkward silence. The adults and teenagers exchanged glances. Katara flushed red. "Right. Okay, you get points for saving me. But I was annoyed when you tied me to a tree –"

"No way!" Teo hooted. Haru looked bewildered.

"Yeah. So apparently Zuko had teamed up with the pirates to find Aang _and_ the waterbending scroll. He tied me to a tree, and tried to get me to tell where Aang was."

A brief smile flickered across Zuko's face. "Your response was – and I quote – 'Go jump in the river!'"

"You go, girl," Toph applauded.

"But then – this is the good part –"

"I thought 'I'll save you from the pirates' was the good part," Sokka interrupted.

Katara shrugged. "You decide. Anyway …" Katara paused. "I'm trying to remember how it went … I think Zuko said something like, 'I need the Avatar to restore something I lost: my honor.' Then he circled around the tree and whispered, 'Maybe in exchange I can restore something you lost.'"

Zuko groaned, knowing what was coming up.

"Then – still standing behind the tree – he held my necklace up to my neck."

"HUH?"

Zuko spoke in a monotone. "I found it on the prison barge – I guess where Haru and the other earthbenders had been imprisoned. I was tracking Aang, and I had come to investigate. I found the necklace, and I knew it must belong to the Avatar's waterbender friend."

"So Zuko tried to use it as a bribe," Katara said, getting back to her part of the story.

Teo blinked, first looking shocked, then somewhat amused. "You tried to give Katara a betrothal necklace?"

Zuko blanched. "I – that was not – I didn't know! Neither of us did!"

"Does this mean Zuko and Katara are engaged?" Toph asked, her eyes lighting up with excitement.

"NO!" Sokka, Zuko, Katara, and Aang shouted.

Hakoda looked amused. "Next time, just give me a heads-up if you want to give my daughter an engagement necklace."

Zuko slapped his forehead in disbelief. "For the love of Agni … Katara, are you _trying_ to torture me?"

"I thought it would be a fun story," Katara muttered.

"At least we can laugh about it now," Aang said, trying to ease the tension.

"So, what happened next?" Chit Sang asked.

"Well, I didn't accept the bribe. I didn't get my necklace back then. The pirates captured Aang and Sokka, but we escaped in the end."

"So how'd you get your necklace back?" Toph asked.

"A few weeks later … well, maybe Zuko can help me with this part. That woman with the giant mole …?"

Zuko folded his arms unhappily. "I met this bounty hunter named Jun. She had a shirshu, and animal that could track people with its sense of smell. I used Katara's necklace as a scent sample, because I knew if I found her, I'd find Aang."

"She thought Katara was Zuko's girlfriend," Sokka informed the others.

Zuko glared at him. "You just _had_ to throw that in, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did," Sokka said matter-of-factly.

"Well, you do make a good couple," Toph said; Katara wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not.

"_Any_way," Katara said with an edge to her voice, "there was a scuffle, and afterwards, Aang showed me he had gotten my necklace back from Zuko.

"It had taken us two months, but not long after we met Teo and his dad, we arrived at the Northern Water Tribe. That was where we met waterbending Master Pakku." She paused dramatically, giving everyone a chance to react.

"The same Pakku who carved your necklace?" Hakoda asked.

"The very same. But we didn't know it at first. He was all set to start teaching Aang, but he said he wouldn't teach me, because apparently in the Northern Tribe, women don't learn waterbending."

"Seriously?" Toph exclaimed.

"No wonder you were so sexist when we met," Suki said to Sokka. "Water Tribe gender roles."

"I bet you took that well," Zuko said to Katara with a smirk.

"Oh yeah," Sokka said, remembering. "She challenged Pakku to a water duel, in front of _everyone._ A fourteen-year-old girl against an old man, the two most powerful waterbenders there."

"It was amazing," Aang spoke up. "Katara hadn't been trained yet, but she was still really powerful. Even Pakku admitted it, but he still wouldn't teach her."

"My necklace fell off during the fight," Katara said. "Pakku trapped me in the ice and started to walk away. Then he saw the necklace on the ground, and we realized that it was the one he had made for my grandmother."

"Wow," Haru said, looking impressed. "It came full circle."

"Did Pakku ever get married?" Teo inquired.

"No. And when he talked about my Gran-Gran, he sounded sad, wistful. I pointed out that it must have taken a lot of courage for her to leave behind her home, to go against tradition like that. And the next day, he started training me in waterbending."

"That's why you were so good when I fought you at the North Pole," Zuko realized.

"That's right. After the Siege of the North, Pakku told me that he wanted to take some other benders and healers to the South Pole, to help rebuild the Southern Water Tribe. When I last saw him, I told him to say hello to Gran-Gran for me. Oh – and that was when he gave me water from the Spirit Oasis at the North Pole. Later, after Azula nearly killed Aang in Ba Sing Se, I used that water to heal Aang. So it's kind of thanks to Pakku that I was able to save him. And … I guess that's the end of the story."

"Wow." Haru leaned back against Appa. "You can really tell a good one."

"They say truth is stranger than fiction," Sokka said wisely.

"What about Pakku and Kanna?" Toph asked. "Did they get back together?"

"I don't know," Katara said with a smile. "Maybe Sokka and I have a new grandfather."

"That would be so romantic," Suki said.

Katara collected the dirty dishes and took them over to the fountain, while everyone else talked among themselves. Zuko approached her when she was bending the water out to wash the dishes.

"What are you playing at?" Zuko asked.

"What, you didn't like the story?" she said sarcastically, feigning innocence.

"I don't appreciate you making fun of me."

Katara shot him a look. "Hey, you said you wanted to join our team. Being part of the group means we can tease each other. Besides," she added roughly, "I couldn't just omit all the times you attacked us."

"Oh, right; my bad." Katara watched as Zuko huffed away. For a moment she felt something tug at her heart – maybe she felt a little bad about embarrassing Zuko. Maybe, a little.

**Author's Note:** This is pretty open-ended; it could fit in with canon or with a Zutara story. You can decide for yourself.


End file.
